Conscience
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged; he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.John 3:16-21
As we continue to consider Buddha’s Eightfold path in the light of the Gospel of St John we must remember that we are dealing with two entirely different types of consciousness.
Buddha spoke of Right Judgment as a skill we were only just beginning to develop. Buddha was forecasting that we were approaching a time when we would assume self-responsibility. It wasn’t until we developed the ability to reason, using our Mind Soul, that we could judge for ourselves what was good and what was bad.
It is the voice of conscience that speaks to us about what is good and what is evil. Apparently a search of the literature of 2000 years ago reveals that this word ‘conscience’ was not in the language. In Greco-Roman times when we did something bad we would clairvoyantly see the Furies tormenting us. So the inner voice of conscience was just developing when Buddha placed the emphasis on Right View and Right Judgment. Then Christ came to replace the outer law and the Furies with inner responsibility and conscience. Now we place everything on the scales of conscience to balance right and wrong.
Here we stand 2,000 years along the path and we must ask: how far have we come towards knowing what IS actually right and wrong? How many layers of dark opinion obscure right and wrong? This is because there is a conspiracy against conscience. There are forces that entice us to choose the wrong. While we do the good these evil forces cannot come near us but when we do something wrong we are surrounded by beings who feed on the energy of bad thoughts and deeds. At this point in evolution they are in a feeding frenzy.
There is a very simple reason for this. Conscience is the gateway to the I AM. The evil forces in our universe do not want us to pass through this gateway. The gateway is found in the soul which becomes the battleground; our feeling, thinking and willing are prey for the forces of opposition. When we do not exert the energy at our disposal to arrive at the Right Judgment, when we take the easy path, the energy we didn’t use is available to these other forces.
When we weigh things up, judging what is good or bad, we always encounter a force of resistance. Do we meet that force or do we back off? If we can meet it we create a path for the I AM to engage in our deliberations. Then the I AM can work on the etheric body creating patterns of what is right and good. This strengthens the light of our conscience. The weaker (and darker) our conscience the more we act out of our impulses. Then our likes and dislikes have too strong an influence over us. The more we understand what is right and what is wrong the more lasting these impressions are on our etheric body and they carry over from life to life. (In fact, a failure in this life can actually produce a strong conscience in a future life.)
This effect on the etheric body highlights the reason for disciplining children, especially between the change of teeth and puberty. During these years they are giving birth to their own etheric body. While it is being formed within them we can more easily impress upon it an understanding of the right inner meaning and value of things which will influence them for the rest of their life.
John says: But he who does what is true comes to the light (of conscience), that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God (in the good). Those on the path always seek to strengthen the good in themselves and in others so that the light of conscience always shines and the evil forces go hungry.
The proof of the work of conscience is the degree to which we are satisfied, or not. Conscience is an impelling force, warning us and if we don’t listen to it we feel uncomfortable, dissatisfied and empty (eaten away). Conscience must always win over desire; conscience is our higher nature which must conquer our lower nature.
Buddha and Christ are the prototypes that stand before us. As Buddha represents the height of human capacity to love; Christ is the cosmic potential of love. When they meet together the I AM is realised.
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